Childhood Adversity and Adult Health

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Our longitudinal studies are answering questions about the link between childhood adversity and adult mental health, brain health, and physical health. For example, we know that victimized young people are at risk for poor mental health. But are these effects specific to some psychological functions? And how do they emerge? Answers to these questions are fundamental to basic research about stress and to intervention research. Our research also tests how early-life psychosocial stress is converted to physiological abnormalities, thus leading to poor health and accelerated aging.